Evil Never Dies

Stu

By the time Kitally caught up to her, Hayley was livid.

“It’s OK,” Kitally said. “We almost had her. We’ll find her again.”

“That bitch flipped me the bird. I should have jumped on her ass the moment we walked into that shoe store.” She threw her arms up in disgust.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. That girl has obviously been making herself scarce for a very long time. She’s good at this.”

“I’ve been chasing criminals for a while myself.”

“Well, I guess you’ve finally met your match.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Di

The burgers proved to be the evening’s high point. By ten thirty they were walking out to the fairgrounds parking lot in search of Tommy’s car. They weren’t the only ones leaving early. The band was a new one called Poetic Justice, and apparently they still needed some seasoning. At this point, they were basically a thunderous set of drums with some occasional screeching feedback whenever the lead singer tried to sing. Hayley could still feel the drummer doing his thing through the soles of her shoes as they crossed the blacktop.

Tommy opened Hayley’s door for her and then went around the front of the car and climbed in behind the wheel. She clicked her seatbelt into place. When she looked over at Tommy, he made a face and said, “Sorry about that. Epic fail.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” she said. And then they both burst out laughing.

“That was the worst band I’ve ever heard,” Tommy said.

“Agreed.”

He looked over his shoulder as he backed out of the gravelly parking lot. Once they were on the road heading home, he said, “Those were some bizarre sounds coming off that stage. My ears still hurt.”

“The best part,” she said, “was when they finished the first song and the lead singer gave his ten-minute rant about politics and everyone threw their glow sticks at him.”

“You’re right. That was the highlight of the night. I am so sorry.”

“Don’t be. I had fun.”

“Seriously?”

She nodded. “I really did.”

“I’ll do better next time. I promise.”

“Next time?”

He shrugged, keeping his eyes on the road as he talked. “I like you, Hayley—you know that. I always have.”

She said nothing.

“What’s going on inside that head of yours these days?”

She snorted. “A whole lot of nothing.”

“I don’t believe that for a minute. You’re always up to something. Do you ever think about the future?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“The future is for dreamers.”

“You don’t have dreams?”

“I can’t say that I do. How about you?”

“I have a few.”

“Tell me.”

“All right.” He took a deep breath as if gathering himself, then let it out. “In my future, I imagine my girl and me living in a quaint house far from the city life. When you step outside the back door, you can hear the lazy trickle of the river. We have two wooden chairs that we keep by the river’s edge. Sometimes you—I mean, my girl—watches me fish and makes fun of me when I finally catch a trout and manage to let it slip right out of my grasp when I go to remove the hook. We watch the fish swim down the river, happy, glad to be free to live another day.” He gri

“Go for it.”

“On occasion, we share a glass of cabernet after di

The long stretch of silence was too much. Hayley turned his way. “And then what happens?”

Tommy laughed. “And then we live happily ever after.”

“That’s it?”

“What else do you want to know?”

“The ending. I need to know what happens to you and your girl at the end.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“We go on to have four children. Two boys and two girls. It’s not easy raising four kids, especially after the economy spirals downward and my business goes under. My girl and me aren’t asking for much, but we refuse to give up our home by the river. So we start a little farm. You know, one of those organic farms, because we want to be together 24-7. At first, she’s a little worried about that arrangement, being that she’s sort of a loner and likes her space, but it isn’t long before she realizes how easygoing I am.”

“So, that’s what you and your girl do all day? Grow fruit and vegetables?”

“Well, my girl, it turns out, has quite the green thumb. People come from all over to pick up some of her amazing banana peppers and lemon basil. Over the next few years, organic everything grows wildly popular. It’s crazy. My girl and me work hard enough to put all four kids through college, and those kids all go on to live amazing lives of their own. You want to know the best part of it all?”

“You can’t stop now,” Hayley said.

“The best part is that through it all, we always take time to sit on the porch or go down by the river and talk. Before you know it, we’re in our nineties, and that’s when you lean close and tell me for the very first time that you love me. And guess what I say?”

“I don’t have a clue,” she said.

“I say, ‘I know.’ ” Tommy glanced her way. “And that’s it. That’s the end.”

“Hmm.”

“So what do you think?”

“I think you’re a starry-eyed dreamer.”

“ ‘I may be a dreamer,’ ” he sang, “ ‘but I’m not the only one.’ ”

She rolled her eyes and then laid her head back and listened to him sing John Le

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

It was ten o’clock when Kitally tapped on Betty Ackley’s window. As she hunched down behind a bush to wait for the old lady to make it over from her bed, she noticed a yellow pill within the soil. And then a white one and a blue one. She broke off a small branch and began to dig in the dirt around the pills. There had to be at least a dozen different sizes and colors of pills, some broken, some half-dissolved in the soil.

Using the stick, she dug a hole, and then brushed all the tablets inside and smoothed the dirt over them. When she was done, she dropped the branch, looked back through the window, and tapped again.

Would Betty even remember she was coming?

In answer to her question, there was a click and then a whoosh as the window was opened from the inside.

Kitally jumped to get her upper body over the windowsill, then used her arms and legs to pull and kick the rest of the way in.

Betty shut the window and then gestured frantically, pointing under the bed and motioning without words for Kitally to get under there and make it quick.

Kitally didn’t ask questions. She got down on the ground, her body flat to the floor, and shimmied her way beneath the bed. It was a tight squeeze, but she managed.

She lay there in the dark and wondered what was going on. Betty looked downright fearful. Before Kitally could question her from her hiding place, the door opened and she heard the flick of a switch. Bright light lit up the room.

“What are you doing awake, Betty?”